Not Much Time Left to Decide

The government decision was on the sixth of June, the anniversary of the start of the Six Day War. Precisely on that day, Sharon forced through the decision that will reverse all of the gains made in that war by, among other things, returning the Egyptians to Gaza, the Jordanians to Samaria and the erasure of Jewish settlement.

Atty. Elyakim Haetzni, 16/06/04 23:57

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אליקים העצני

פלאש 90

Atty. Elyakim Haetzni

Elyakim Haetzni is a lawyer and former Knesset member who resides in Kiryat Arba.

Today is the 16th of June. The government decision that left the people of Israel nine months to temper the evil decree was on the sixth of June. That means that the period of grace has already been shortened by ten days. What have we done in that time to save ourselves from catastrophe?

The catastrophe of which I speak will not only affect the settlements. The dictator is preparing a national disaster that may well endanger the continued existence of the entire state.

For a year and a half, Ariel Sharon refrained from reacting to Yasser Arafat's terror war. Even after the massacre at the Dolphinarium, even after the assassination of Minister Rehavam ("Gandhi") Ze'evi, he continued to argue that "restraint is strength", in order to avoid inciting the world powers to send international observers here. That was because he justifiably saw the involvement of such observers as foreign interference, as a constraint on freedom of action, as delimiting national sovereignty - and also as an excuse for worsening relations with the world, as always happened every time international observers set foot here. And yet, all of a sudden, there appear British spies from MI6 in the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria, to "observe" the settlements and to train the new Palestinian army. Wanted terrorists in Jenin kicked them out, but Sharon invited them in. In Samaria, Jordanian officers are also operating, in parallel with the Egyptian military intervention in Gaza.

The government decision was on the sixth of June, the anniversary of the start of the Six Day War. Precisely on that day, Sharon forced through the decision that will reverse all of the gains made in that war by, among other things, returning the Egyptians to Gaza, the Jordanians to Samaria and the erasure of Jewish settlement.

With Egyptian units in Gaza, the hands of the IDF will be tied. Every targeted killing could spark a war. The explosion of the APC on the Philadelphi Route was the writing on the wall, written in the blood of five soldiers: an improved "Cobra" RPG, made in Egypt, did the deadly deed. Itai Asher wrote in Maariv, on June 11, that the IDF is not currently destroying smuggling tunnels because there is no alternate armored vehicle for transporting explosives. That report is so fantastical, it is almost incomprehensible.

For years, Egypt has been responsible for providing arms and equipment for the terror war, more so than Syria is guilty of arming the Hizbullah. Would anyone consider it possible that the prime minister would invite the Syrian army to the Golan Heights... in order to cease the arming of the Hizbullah? It would be thought the act of a madman. Sharon's decision to insinuate into Gaza the Egyptian army is crazier still, because the Egyptian army is several times more dangerous than the Syrian.

After the withdrawal-retreat, all manner of missile and Katyusha will flow across the border controlled, on both sides, by Egypt. The missiles will turn life throughout the Negev and the south into a living hell. What the Oslo criminals brought upon the people of Israel by bringing the Palestinian terrorist groups from Tunis will pale in comparison with the results of bringing the Egyptian army and the missiles from Egypt deep into our land.

In the near range of the missiles will be the Ashkelon power plant and the Dimona nuclear reactor, according to experts quoted in the media.

And all of the foregoing is being done unilaterally. That is, the Egyptians and Palestinians owe us nothing, not even on paper. What do the Minister of Defense, the IDF Chief of Staff, members of the General Staff and government ministers have to say about this? Some of them are simply silent and some are running along with the rest of the herd. The Defense Minister even reported to the government with great satisfaction that Egypt is being very helpful with the disengagement, even agreeing to convene a joint committee to ease our exit. Thus the death row convict thanks his executioner: "He is very helpful."

The dictatorship of Sharon not only forebodes the end of the settlements, God forbid, but also poses a threat to the security of Israel. Like the Golem of Prague when it got out of control, he tramples everything underfoot. Everything has been overturned: suddenly, he is a friend to Kofi Annan, is enthralled by the Arabs, and praises Javier Solana, the European whose hatred for us drips from him. As in the case of Shabtai Zvi, suddenly what was forbidden is permitted, the fast of Tisha B'Av becomes a feast.

At the cabinet meeting, Sharon ordered the ministers and deputy ministers opposed to the Gaza retreat, as a dictator would, not to absent themselves from the Knesset and to vote only in favor of the policy. He also forbade them from opening their mouths in public against what he calls the "disengagement". And whosoever rebels will be removed.

In the meantime, the compensation-for-evacuation committees are already meeting, and the jangle of money is already being sounded in the direction of the settlers, in an effort to seduce them. According to the press, down-payments will already be made as early as August. Facts on the ground are being finalized: Europe, the UN and America are declaring their commitment; the Egyptians, Jordanians and British are already on the ground; Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will soon distribute cash; and still, Zevulun Orlev, Nissan Slomiansky and Sha'ul Yahalom (National Religious Party) do not see, do not hear and do not know. They don't even ask the question, "And if the government decides not to uproot the settlements, how will it get the down payments back?" They know that we know that it is all, as the kids say, "BS."

In such a situation, it is forbidden that a single day pass without demonstrations and vigils across from the homes and offices of our leaders. And not a single day should pass without us also turning to the soldiers, who are already undergoing psychological conditioning and brainwashing to prepare them for the atrocity they intend to send them to carry out. Yet we have not decided to address them, verbally and in writing, to ask them not to obey. And we have not yet gone to the clerks - in the Ministries of Finance, Security, Justice - who are already working on the preparations for the atrocity of expulsion and uprooting, devastation, pushing, pulling, beating and aggression against men, women and children, along with the destruction of their places of residence. We have not yet turned to them at their homes and offices to say, "Don't do it. Don't obey. Delay, obstruct, disrupt - have a heart and a conscience. Don't take part in this national crime, which is also a crime against humanity, and about which Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, Rishon Lezion and former Chief Rabbi, said, '...it is the Torah opinion that no man has the right, not the prime minister, and not the government itself, to uproot a Jewish community in the Land of Israel; all the more so can it be obviously inferred that no part of the Land of Israel can be transferred to a foreign entity.'"

The people of Gush Katif and northern Samaria, the Judea, Samaria and Gaza Council, the settlers and all Land of Israel loyalists have arrived at a fork in the road, and it is time to decide which way they are headed.

It is one thing to say that Sharon's actions are mistaken, dangerous, irresponsible and even lawless. A government decision within those parameters, if it was passed through proper legal channels, must still be accepted and obeyed, even by the affected citizen and most certainly by the people in uniform. However, it is another matter entirely to say that Sharon's actions are forbidden and patently illegal, because he is violating the most basic human rights according to morality as accepted in the West, and because they are forbidden according to the Torah in the view of rabbis such as Rabbis Eliyahu, Avraham Shapira, Shlomo Aviner, Tau, Melamed, Lior and many, many others.

To make it more tangible for ourselves, let's imagine that Sharon would pass through a government decision to do to 22 Arab villages what he is plotting to do to Jewish villages. In such a case, he would be accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and if he would dare set foot outside the country, he'd be seated in the dock alongside the Yugoslavian Slobodan Milosevic.

Can it be imagined that we, Jews in Israel, would decide that exactly such an act, if done to us, is legal, permissible and kosher?

All the organization of the opposition to transfer - the statements, messages and methods - change the minute the government is accused of a patently illegal act, which it is forbidden to obey orders to carry out. Even less than that will be enough. Even an act that is legal, but patently immoral, is recognized in Western democracies as falling under the rubric of "polite refusal": non-violent resistance, disobedience and the willingness to suffer the consequences. Thus the blacks in America achieved their equal rights.

We have yet to hear the settler leaders declaring openly and fearlessly that they thusly relate to the dictates of Sharon, and calling on the public to act accordingly.

As long as our leadership refuses to call the thing what it is - patently illegal and immoral, which should not be obeyed, all the protests will be just in order to fulfill a perceived obligation, round two of the evacuation of Yamit in the Sinai. There is not much time left to decide and to determine a course of action accordingly - just nine months less ten days.

I propose to readers to demand a clear answer from our leaders: against the conspiracy of destruction - which not by coincidence is meant to begin exactly on the day of Tisha B'Av - what do you plan, a demonstration or a real struggle?